Chapter 14 - Meeting on the Road
"Temari, are you sure you know where you're going?" Kankuro quietly asked as they jumped from rooftop to rooftop on their way toward the eastern part of the village.
"I'm sure Kankuro, I think. . ." Temari mused, quickly looking around before they jumped to the roof of an apartment building. "Trust me on this, okay?"
"But how are you so sure that this is the way to the noble district?" The puppeteer dared to ask, his right eyebrow going up slightly.
"Because I asked the clerk at our hotel's concierge desk before we left. That's how I know Kankuro," Temari mumbled as the two came to a stop on top of a weapons' shop, the street below coming alive with activity. ". . . We may be ninjas, but it doesn't hurt to ask questions when you need to, you know?"
"Ok, ok, you have me there," Her brother conceded. "Anyway, how much longer before we arrive at the district?"
"Shouldn't be long now, by my estimate . . . However, the clerk did mention that the entrance isn't as obvious as you'd hope for," The crown princess mumbled as she walked over to the building's edge. She quickly dropped down to the street, her brother quickly following suit.
No one out on the street batted an eye at them, chalking it up to ninjas being ninjas.
"What do you mean by that?" Kankuro gruffly asked. "Don't tell me they have some sort of genjutsu on the entrance at all times!"
"Thankfully, no, but it isn't going to be advertised by a traditional red arch with a sign saying, "Noble District" in big kanji right at the top either," Temari mumbled as she looked down the street. "Think of it as hiding in plain sight if you will . . . Nothing really sticks out, even the supposedly more opulent houses. Everything blends in, so you'll likely won't see anything specific unless you explore the area more closely."
"So, we could have possibly crossed into the district without even realizing it?" Kankuro asked, his eyes widening in disbelief as his sister nodded in the affirmative. "Gotta admit; it's a smart idea. . . Annoying, but smart."
"Yeah . . . If only we knew where our competition exactly lived though," The blonde mumbled as she adjusted the fan strapped to her back. "At this point, any clue would be nice."
"What's this?! You didn't ask the clerk where your opponent lives?" Kankuro couldn't help but tease as he watched his sister scowl. "I'm sure it wouldn't have been too hard, especially for someone like yourself."
"Oh really?!" She sarcastically mumbled, looking off to the side. "Just because we're royalty doesn't mean I can demand everything I want."
"Technically, I believe you can," Kankuro argued back.
"This isn't Suna Kankuro," Temari was quick to remind him. "We're in a different land that abides by different rules. Just because we're royals doesn't mean that everyone's going to abide by our orders, especially when we're not even in our own territory."
"Okay, okay, I see your point," The puppeteer relented, raising his hands in surrender. "So, what do we do now? Keep moving around till we somehow find it? Wait around till one of our opponents walks into us?!"
"You know Kankuro?" Temari mumbled as she looked down the street, shock obvious on her face. "You may be onto something with your latter suggestion."
Curious, her brother looked in the same direction, his eyes growing comically wider when he saw two familiar figures heading their way.
"Well, would you look at that!" Kankuro mused as he tempered his expression back to normalcy. "Ask and you shall receive."
"If only real life was that easy Kankuro. . ." Temari trailed off as they watched Haruka Nekonome and Nanami Otoribashi, Princess Shizuka's teammates, as they stopped to window shop at a clothing store. ". . . This really is a stroke of timely luck."
"It doesn't look like they haven't spotted us yet." Kankuro mumbled as they continued to watch the two. "Should we hide now? We got the advantage now."
"At this point, I don't think it would do us any good," His sister mumbled in return. "Nekonome comes from a clan that holds a long-standing partnership with ninja cats. It's not hard to think that enhanced smell was part of the deal. . . She should have a sense of our scents by now, so if she gets one whiff of us, the jig is up."
"Not unless we hide ourselves well," Kankuro suggested as he adjusted the puppet strapped to his back. "Quick! What's your best genjutsu?"
"Too late! We already spotted you!"
The siblings whipped their heads around to see Haruka and Nanami standing right in front of them, with the former looking rather annoyed, while the latter appeared slightly amused. Instead of their ninja gear, Haruka wore a dark blue tracksuit with the jacket open to reveal the gray t-shirt she wore underneath, while Nanami wore a traditional blue kimono top and black skirt, her lavender hair pinned back with oval shaped clips.
"You guys waste no time in the spying department, don't you?!" Haruka sarcastically mumbled as she put her brown locks into a high ponytail. "Like seriously, we finished the preliminaries just yesterday, and you guys are already trying to spy on people!"
"We may have a month's worth of free time, but I guess you Wind ninjas just couldn't wait to get started." Nanami added as she adjusted her glasses.
"And what makes you think we were trying to spy on you guys?" Kankuro asked, mainly to save face.
"I don't just have an advanced sense of smell. I also have exceptionally good hearing," Haruka admitted.
"Ok . . . Didn't expect that. Probably should have, but didn't," Kankuro mumbled, conceding defeat.
"Look, can you blame us for starting our preparations early?" Temari asked, sending a quick glare her brother's way.
"Honestly? Not really," Haruka mumbled as she crossed her arms. "But it does grab your attention when your remaining competition starts their info gathering less than a day after the preliminaries end. . . Taking one day off isn't going to kill you people!"
"I get that the Showcase can be a stressful event, but it won't hurt you to take a breather," Nanami added, her face suddenly gaining an inquisitive expression. "Unless . . ."
"Unless what, Nanami?" Haruka prodded as Kankuro and Temari could only look on with indifferent expressions on their face, though on the inside, they were growing tenser by the second.
"There's more at stake for them than there is for the rest of us," She concluded. "It's one thing to enter the Showcase as a regular ninja, or even as one from a notable clan. . . It's another thing entirely when you come from a royal family."
"Well, she's not wrong." Temari thought as her brother's eyes widened slightly.
"Huh, it's one thing to compete well. It's another thing entirely when you're royalty. At this point, it's basically a must, especially if you're the firstborn," Nanami added, looking directly at Temari. "You already have to deal with all the pressure of being the heir. Couple that with trying to accomplish a good result in the Showcase . . . I'm guessing this is not a fun time for you."
"Considering that your teammate is also a princess, I'm sure you have some inkling to what royalty has to struggle through. . ." Temari sarcastically mumbled, trying to show a tough face despite Nanami's almost right-on-the-nose conclusion.
Despite her best efforts, the two kunoichi were not buying it.
"Can the sarcastic barbs, Windy! Your words aren't working like you hoped for," Hanabi was quick to say, shutting Temari down before she could say anything more.
"Windy? She certainly told you sis!" Kankuro spoke up, vainly hiding the chuckle that threatened to escape past his mouth. The smirk didn't fall off his face even when Temari punched him in the arm. . .
. . . He was too amused to react otherwise.
"You really shouldn't be laughing," Nanami mumbled. "You're technically in the same boat as your sister, just with a little less pressure."
"I'm not too sure about that," Haruka admitted. "He's probably under more pressure to do well. . . I'm sure he doesn't want his siblings to show him up during the Finals. At the very least, can you imagine the pushback he may get among the older men back in his homeland if they heard that his sister did better than him . . . Granted, she's older and the first in line, but still, nothing's more irritating than misogynistic old geezers making their sexist opinions known."
"Now isn't that the truth," Temari mumbled, having faced her fair share of them amongst the Wind Kingdom's nobility. "But then again, misogynistic old geezers happen to be everywhere. Noble and royal ones just tend to be worse because they use their power to back their words, regardless of how wrong they are."
"Can't argue against that one," Haruka mumbled as she turned her sights back on Kankuro. "So, are you still planning on spying on me today? I wouldn't blame you if you did."
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" Kankuro grumbled, irritated that the kunoichi even dared to appear amused.
"You're a puppeteer!" Nanami uttered, looking baffled by the prince's reaction. "Puppeteers are usually known for two things: being long-range fighters, and being weak in taijutsu. . . And unless you were hiding some skills during the preliminaries, you really are just one of the many puppeteers your kingdom is known for producing."
"Way to make someone sound so . . . cookie cutter," Temari mumbled as Kankuro could only look on with a blank expression. ". . . You have a point, but wow, you know how to make someone feel unoriginal."
"Hey! Mind not sounding like you're supporting what she just said?!"
"You got to admit that she was on point with her assessment on puppeteers though?" Temari said in return, not bothered by the look her brother was giving her.
"It's pretty stereotypical at this point," Nanami added.
"A lot of stuff in the realm of shinobi is stereotypical, but yeah, puppeteering in general is one of the biggest," Haruka added as Kankuro could only look at her in silent disbelief. ". . . Is he going to be okay?"
"He'll be fine," Temari was quick to say, more amused by her brother's reaction more than anything. "He probably feels really called out right now, but he'll be fine."
"Sometimes people need to hear things that they don't like," Haruka mumbled. "And considering your royal blood, I'm sure he doesn't get to hear it often."
"Fair point. . ." Temari conceded as she brought a hand to her chin. "It seems like the company you keep really gave you guys a little more insight on royal life than most."
"Well, your teammate is the reigning princess of the kingdom, it's a given," Nanami mumbled. "Plus, we also serve as some of her official ladies-in-waiting, so there's that too."
"Wait, you guys do the whole lady-in-waiting thing here?" Kankuro asked; Temari almost visibly wincing at how baffled he sounded.
"Um, yeah. It's a part of royal tradition, meant to foster good connections between the royal family and the noble clans," Haruka mumbled, her eyebrows furrowing. "Last time I checked; every kingdom follows this protocol."
"Not the Wind Kingdom, at the moment," Temari grumbled as she looked at her nails, missing the curious look that the other kunoichi were shooting at her.
"You have no ladies-in-waiting, and you are your kingdom's Crown Princess?" Haruka mumbled as Nanami remained silent. ". . . That's a ballsy position to be in. I'll give you that."
"Is there some sort of shortage of girls around your age among the noble clans back in your homeland?" Nanami finally blurted out, too curious for her own good.
"No; there are plenty of girls my age back home, but they're either straight up kissups looking to aid their family's progress to the top, or completely naive weaklings that can barely handle a conversation that isn't about makeup or dresses," Temari griped. "It doesn't stop my father from getting on my case about it though."
"Can you honestly blame him?" Haruka asked, looking at Temari with a look that didn't appear unsympathetic to her plight. "Sure, there will always be kissups and naive idiots among the nobility. . . Every kingdom has their fair share of them, but you can't make all of them your enemy."
"Especially not someone like you," Nanami added as she gestured Temari's way. "Don't you think antagonizing the noble clans back home by not picking out your ladies-in-waiting hurts your chances of securing the throne when it's finally time for you to take over?"
"You may be the first in line, and I don't think the Wind Kingdom has a law that bans female rulers or clan heads in their law books, but that doesn't mean that everyone's going to abide by the idea of you ruling," Haruka added with a knowing glint in her eye. "You alienating the other nobles by not having a cadre of their daughters and nieces within your inner circle is not a good way to endear yourself to them if you want to have a peaceful reign you know?"
"Well, isn't that a good point. . ." Kankuro admitted, not being the least sarcastic as he turned to his sister, who looked more nonplussed than anything else. "Rethinking your no ladies-in-waiting policy yet?"
Temari could only stare at her brother blankly before turning back to the girls. She had always thought that the policy of having ladies-in-waiting was an antiquated system that she would have been more than happy to do away with, especially since she was someone that loved her privacy and alone time, but after hearing Haruka and Nanami's counterargument, she was starting to think differently on it.
Temari knew that her road to the throne would not be an easy one, even though she was the first in line for it. The Wind Kingdom tended to be more patriarchal than most other kingdoms, so her gender did her no favors with some of the traditionalists back home. Having some of their female members within her retinue could help to build stronger connections that she could use in the future, but the fact that she hasn't acted on this for so long may have hurt her in the long run.
It didn't hurt to try once she got back home though.
"I'll admit it. What you guys pointed out makes sense. . ." Temari finally admitted, looking up to see that Nanami was walking off. "Where's she going?"
"To pick up her order from that weapons shop," said Haruka as Nanami walked over to said building. "It's why we came out this way in the first place. . . If you're thinking about going there to shop, tread carefully."
"And why would you say that?" The princess asked, not offended, but slightly curious. "Does the owner not like foreigners?"
"No; the owners aren't discriminatory in the slightest. . . The shop's just owned by TenTen's family, aka . . ."
". . . The one I beat in the preliminaries," Temari finished for her, the image of the weapon-wielding brunette popping into her head.
"The very same one!" Haruka added. "Don't worry, she's not one for holding grudges. Her parents on the other hand . . ."
"I get the idea. Thanks for the warning though."
"Anytime . . ." Haruka shrugged before turning her sights on Kankuro. "Just to let you know before I go, if I catch you trying to spy on me in the future, I will not hesitate to dismantle every single puppet you have on you to the smallest splinter . . . Have a good day you two!"
". . . Damn, I suddenly felt a chill go down my spine." Kankuro mumbled quietly as he watched the cat girl walk away with a wary expression on his face.
"Of course a chill went down your spine! She did just threaten you after all," Temari mumbled as she started walking off. "Come on! It would do us no good to spy on them now. . . We'll have to wait till the time is right."
"Should we look for our other competition then?" Her brother was quick to ask as he followed her.
"We have a good month to find out what the other competitors have in store for the finals. . . It's not an immediate thing that we need to do, no matter how much Baki thinks otherwise." Temari theorized as she continued moving. "You can spy on the others now if you want, but I'm going exploring . . . You're welcome to join me if you like."
"Well, you do make a convincing argument," The puppeteer conceded, following her down the road.
A/N: Leave a comment if you like!